Can't connect or start Server

[Jeff Walters]

I never really understood how to start the MySQL server. I was shown by a friend that I need to go out to the command prompt, as administrator, and type the command "mysqld -u root -p" (if I'm recalling that correctly). I did that again today. (I always just put my PC to sleep, so the mysql server was always running the next day. Well, after some windows updates, I had to reboot and try to get mysql up and running again. I've been using workbench to complete a Udemy course on SQL, but now I can't seem to connect).

Windows task manager/services is showing MySQL56 is running. When I go into Workbench I can't connect to the local mysql connection. When I click on the Local box from the home screen of workbench, it will ask for the password, which is blank. It then tells me "Cannot Connect to Database Server"...

Questions:
How do I start and connect to the server/database so I can use Workbench to run querries?

Can I configure my computer to automatically start MySQL server when my PC starts? Going to the command prompt seems like a weird/archaic way of doing it.

I'm running Windows 7, 32bit, MySQL5.6 and I know very little about configuring Windows and software in general (in other words, please dumb down your answer :))

TIA!